WWE
The history of WWE dates back to the early 1950s when it was founded by Jess McMahon and Toots Mondt in 1952 as Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC). It underwent numerous name changes throughout the years, from World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) to World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2003. In April 2002, with an excess of talent employed as a result of having purchased WCW and ECW, WWE needed a way to provide exposure for all of its talent. This problem was solved by introducing a "Brand Extension", with the roster split in half and the talent assigned to either Raw or SmackDown! in a mock draft lottery. Wrestlers, commentators and referees became show-exclusive, and the shows were given separate on-screen General Managers. Shortly thereafter, on the June 24, 2002 episode of Raw, Vince McMahon officially referred to the new era as "Ruthless Aggression".30 LIn April 2002, with an excess of talent employed as a result of having purchased WCW and ECW, WWE needed a way to provide exposure for all of its talent. This problem was solved by introducing a "Brand Extension", with the roster split in half and the talent assigned to either Raw or SmackDown! in a mock draft lottery. Wrestlers, commentators and referees became show-exclusive, and the shows were given separate on-screen General Managers. Shortly thereafter, on the June 24, 2002 episode of Raw, Vince McMahon officially referred to the new era as "Ruthless Aggression".Later in 2002, after WWE Champion Brock Lesnar announced himself exclusive property of the SmackDown! brand and with the creation of the World Heavyweight Championship, all the championships became show-exclusive too. Additionally, both Raw and SmackDown! began to stage individual pay-per-view events featuring only performers from that brand – only the major four pay-per-views Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series remained dual-branded. The practice of single-brand pay-per-view events was abandoned following WrestleMania 23. In effect, Raw and SmackDown were operated as two distinct promotions, with a draft lottery taking place each year to determine which talent was assigned to each brand. This lasted until August 2011, when the rosters were merged and the Brand Extension was quietly phased outater in 2002, after WWE Champion Brock Lesnar announced himself exclusive property of the SmackDown! brand and with the creation of the World Heavyweight Championship, all the championships became show-exclusive too. Additionally, both Raw and SmackDown! began to stage individual pay-per-view events featuring only performers from that brand – only the major four pay-per-views Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series remained dual-branded.The practice of single-brand pay-per-view events was abandoned following WrestleMania 23.In effect, Raw and SmackDown were operated as two distinct promotions, with a draft lottery taking place each year to determine which talent was assigned to each brand. This lasted until August 2011, when the rosters were merged and the Brand Extension was quietly phased out In the Summer of 2008, WWE began distancing itself from the edgier content of years past, going with a more conservative approach. While no true start date is given, the July 22, 2008 episode of SmackDown was the first show that would use a PG television rating as opposed to using a PG DVL rating.43 While fans would dub this the "PG Era" early on, references from wrestlers themselves would come later such as Triple H in his "Thy Kingdom Come" documentary and Natalya on an episode of "Table for 3". In 2009, WWE debuted a Raw guest host concept, initially with Donald Trump (in storyline a one-night only kayfabe owner of Raw), in which various celebrities, athletes or past wrestlers made weekly appearances and were incorporated to the shows and stories until 2010. Also in 2009 D-Generation X reunited and would win the unified WWE tag team titles from Chris Jericho and The Big show in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match.44 On January 4, 2010, Bret Hart returned to a WWE ring after a thirteen-year absence, where he reconciled with Shawn Michaels on screen. At WrestleMania XXVI, Michaels retired following a loss to The Undertaker. Another top performer Edge also retired a year later. Also in 2010, Bret Hart served briefly as the Raw general manager before being replaced by the Anonymous Raw General Manager. In early 2011, The Rock returned to WWE when he was announced as the host for WrestleMania XXVII.45 Rock started a cross-generational feud with John Cena, which saw him defeating Cena in a match at WrestleMania XXVIII. In August 2011, WWE began to phase out the brand extension when they gave Raw the tagline "SuperShow", meaning wrestlers could appear on both Raw and SmackDown.46 Throughout the original WWE brand extension, the company held 9 draft lotteries total. Starting with Raw's 1,000th episode, airing on July 23, 2012, Raw has removed the "SuperShow" tagline and has extended from two-hours to become a three-hour broadcast, a format that had previously been reserved for special episodes. Following WrestleMania 32, major changes occurred in the WWE, as a new beginning for the company was dubbed "The New Era." In its first pay-per-view on May 1, the Payback main event saw Roman Reigns retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against AJ Styles. Later in May 2016, WWE announced that a roster split would take place beginning in July, similar to the one in 2002. The three former members of The Shield: Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins have been heavily featured since the start of the New Era, with all three men exchanging the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Money in the Bank in June 2016. While the now renamed WWE World Championship would be moved to the SmackDown brand, the new WWE Universal Championship was introduced for the Raw brand, with Finn Bálor becoming the inaugural champion.